LATEST ARTICLES

Rafia Zakaria

Rafia Zakaria

Women, so
summarily neglected by the Taliban other than being whipped and stoned and
forced into Burqas and out of markets, are of these previously untapped
constituencies that the TTP has turned to. A new magazine published by the
group is titled Sunnat-i-Khaula and aims to try and recruit from among millions
of Pakistani women....

Moni Mohsin

Moni Mohsin

When I told the
late writer and historian Khushwant Singh – a Delhi Wallah who was once a
Lahori – of my encounters in Delhi, he smiled and said: “You should see them at
the cinema. Whenever Lahore gets mentioned, they all burst into tears
together.”...

Rukhsana Shah

Rukhsana Shah

In colonial
India, Gandhiji’s vision encompassed a return to Ramraj enriched by the ideas
of Tolstoy and Ruskin, and was reflected in his two ashrams set up in
Maharashtra. Earlier, Rabindranath Tagore’s father had set up the famous
Shantiniketan, a spiritual centre in West Bengal that is now a full-fledged
university town. However, not many people know about the existence of Preet
Nagar (now in India), a community that was set up midway between Lahore and
Amritsar in 1938 by Gurbakhsh Singh, a resident of Model Town, Lahore.....

Gary Anderson

The Afghan
stalemate will only be broken when the various factions that make up the
Taliban realize two things. First, that they are not strong enough to capture
the major population centres of Afghanistan as they did in the late ‘90s; and
second, that they are losing ground to a far more dangerous enemy in the form
of ISIS than they face in the Afghan government. Until the Afghan security
forces stop losing ground, the Taliban will continue to hope the government
will crack....

Rashid Samnakay, New Age Islam

It is suggested
to the scholars that sing song accompanied with string and percussion
instruments to pass their message effectively will not go astray, as these are
allowed in religion. After all the Rusul Daood Alaihis Salaam wrote and
sang psalms accompanied by harp and Sulaiman Alaihis Salaam propagated
song called Song of Solomon! Perhaps those apostles knew better that the
language of music touches the heart and soul of mankind. The modern scholars
should emulate these stances to lure the young ones....

Akbar Ahmed

Akbar Ahmed

A native of
London, Winter converted to Islam in the late 1970s, at the age of 19, when he
was an undergraduate student at Cambridge. He noted that at the time many
English people conceived of Islam as "something you'd encounter when you
were serving with the colonial office or as a missionary, but otherwise it was
not there on the English radar at all, for good or for ill." He also
noted, "There were quite a lot of people also coming into Islam at that
time. There's perhaps 100,000 converts in the U.K. at the moment."...

BEST OF BEFORE ARTICLES

Rashid Samnakay, New Age Islam

All the while the children of the unfortunate mother-goddess suffer the
humiliation in silence along with their father. The noble institution of
marriage that was the cause of raising the woman to the status of goddess,
under whose feet lies the Jannah, that same institution is now used by their
religion to grind her personality in dirt, and not only of the unfortunate
mother but the honour of the whole family – the father, the children and all
those associated with the sordid event. A nation that enacts and obeys such
inhuman religious laws is not fit to be included in the community of human
beings. So is there any hope for recovery for such a degenerate nation? May be
4-150,151 of the Book can answer that.....

A Rahman, New Age Islam

A Rahman, New Age Islam

The most important of these three cases is the petition filed on the subject of triple Talaq, Nikah Halala and polygamy. The title of this petition is Shayara Bano v. Union of India. Under Articles of Indian constitution 14, 15, 21, and 25, this petition has challenged the constitutionality of the three issues; triple Talaq at one go (giving Talaq three times on one occasion by pronouncing Talaq, Talaq, Talaq), Nikah Halala (which involves a female divorcee marrying someone else, consummating the marriage and then getting a divorce in order to make it allowable to remarry her previous husband) and polygamy...

Deeba Abedi, New Age Islam

Dr. Deeba Abedi, New Age Islam

Some cultural and religious practices just keep going on and on for centuries without ever being questioned. No one asks what good they are or who truly benefits from them or why they are still in place after 1,300 years. Nikah Mut’ah and Nikah Misyar, for instance, are some of those customs that perhaps seemed relevant in the seventh century, but today, to many Muslims, they are outdated and geared only for the benefit of Muslim men, with little or no advantages for the women…

Muhammad Yunus, New Age Islam

Muhammad Yunus, New Age Islam

Finally, when the King was marching in his New Clothes it was a little ‘Malala’ in the crowd to shout, ‘the King has no clothes.’ On April 13 in the Parliament of Canada the real Malala of this era – not afraid of anyone, said aloud what the Ulema and scholars of Islam have been afraid to say: “when you pick up a gun in the name of Islam and kill innocent people, you are not a Muslim anymore.”….

Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam

Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to be their
model to emulate. The Prophet’s model behaviour included model justice and
forgiveness, which is demonstrated in the fact that he never took revenge on
anyone on his own behalf but forgave even his staunch enemies. Consequently,
this ideal attribute of the Prophet softened many hard-hearted men, playing a
pivotal role in attracting the pagans towards willingly embracing Islam and
Muslims....

Roshan Shah, New Age Islam

“Such
institutions appear to be no longer capable of producing creative minds” or
“nurturing the skills” necessary to solve the complex problems of Muslims
today. Moreover, he says, the majority of the Muslim educational institutions
failed to help students gain proper knowledge and understanding of Islam and
did not facilitate the development of “mature faith”. ...

Arshad Alam, New Age Islam

Arshad Alam, New Age Islam

Muslims are also reported in the mainstream media through their
‘peculiarities’, particularly in terms of their religion. Thus stories on
triple Talaq, polygamy and such issues gain wide prominence within the
mainstream media. A bit of research would tell us that polygamy is more among
Hindu castes than Muslims, but when there is a discourse of relating a
community to the practice of its religion, and then all facts and figures are
given a go by. The problem is compounded by the well-entrenched belief among
the media establishment that Muslims are best represented by the Ulema. And
thus we have in television studios Muslim religious clerics who through their
ignorance and trying to reduce everything to religion, end up giving a bad name
to Muslims.....

Dr. Adis Duderija, New Age Islam

Dr. Adis Duderija, New Age Islam

Briefly and generally speaking, in neo-classical articulations of
Islamic law men as husbands and/or fathers as a category are given authority, asymmetrical
and privileged rights over many aspects
of their female folk ( e.g. wives and daughters) including unilateral right to
divorce ( Talaq) , custody over children , unilateral right to polygamy, right
to marry off minors ( usually girls-marriage to girl minors as young as nine in places such as Saudi Arabia and Iran
is still legal), nearly absolute sexual rights and various forms of
disciplining...

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Fifteen
years after 9/11, the scourge of violent Islamist extremism has become even
more complex and deadly. The alacrity with which 30,000 Muslims from
around the world joined the so-called Islamic State’s war against humanity
has puzzled many. How could a peaceful, pluralistic religion be subverted so
easily to create inhuman monsters? Among many factors, social, economic,
political, psychological, the one common factor is a brainwashing of vulnerable
people on the basis of a supremacist, xenophobic, intolerant, exclusivist,
totalitarian, Jihadi theology.

This
is a blatant misuse of Islam, a spiritual path to salvation that teaches peace,
pluralism, co-existence and good neighbourliness. But there has to be a reason
why Jihadi ideology has gained acceptance; why fatwas issued by reputed moderate
scholars are proving so ineffective? How are Jihadis able to create a 100
percent certainty in the minds of some Muslims that violence against innocent
people, whom they consider infidel, will please God and lead them to Heaven?

Clearly
we Muslims need to rethink some basic features of our theology. Success of
Jihadism lies in the fact that, at its core, the Jihadi theology is not very
different from the consensus theology of all other schools of Islamic thought.
Jihadists misuse the war-time verses of the holy Quran, as Muslims believe that
all verses, regardless of the context, are of universal applicability. But most
damaging for Islam and useful for Jihadism is the Doctrine of Abrogation
whereby all peaceful Meccan verses are considered abrogated by the
confrontational, war-time Medinan verses. Similarly the divinity attached to
Hadith and Sharia and their universal applicability will have to be
reconsidered by mainstream Islam, and not just to defeat Jihadism, but also to
deal with many other issues including Human Rights of women, children and
homosexuals....

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Our focus should not be so much on Zakir Naik as on the question: why and how he has so easily succeeded in radicalising millions. Saudis and ahl-e-hadithis have only provided him logistical support. In my view the reason he has succeeded is that he is not saying anything new. He is using the theology of consensus, the same theology that is taught in universities and madrasas of all schools of thought.

His distinction is in the presentation, using modern means of communication. He is reaching those who did not have access to this theology before.

That is why ulema cannot oppose him or other militant Islamic preachers. Sufi-Barailvis and even Deobandis have tried. They are angry because he has exposed their hypocrisy. ...

Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

Reform of Muslim personal law is the need of the hour. A demand for this has been made for decades in conferences, seminars and marches, organised by several progressive Islamic organisations including New Age Islam Foundation. These demands need to be intensified and peaceful demonstrations organised on a large scale, demanding that the government reform these laws. It will inevitably be opposed and equally inevitably expose the two-facedness of Islamic fundamentalists in the country. This would lead to a much needed debate on the hypocrisy of our ulema.

Faced with a barrage of questions, the ulema have now decided to challenge the progressive Muslims on their theological knowledge and more importantly, the courage, to stand up to their beliefs. At the same time, they are blaming them for encouraging courts to intervene, while taking their regular subversive position that courts and government should not intervene in matters of Muslim Personal Law as it is a matter of faith.

Rather than being cowed into silence or even dismiss this challenge as an effort to obfuscate matters, progressive Muslims should pick up the gauntlet and battle it out. This should be used as a great opportunity to breach the total stagnation that has prevailed in Islamic theological debates in the country. This will not only help the victims of our Anglo-Mohammedan Personal Law but also help open up issues related to violent extremism that is attracting our youth more and more in the absence of debate. For instance, accepting that triple talaq is not a part of Quranic teachings or even Hadith (sayings of the Prophet). A classical Muslim scholar, Hafeez Nomani, has asked if Quran alone is legitimate Islamic scripture and whether a bid’at (innovation) like triple talaq ordered by the second Caliph Hazrat Umar cannot be considered legitimate. He then goes on to ask that if triple talaq cannot be accepted, as it is a bid’at, then what about Quran, which in its present form is itself an innovation ordered by the same caliph and completed by the third Caliph Hazrat Usman.

These are among the issues that Muslims need to debate urgently for the wider good of the community as well as the nation and the world. We must never forget the solemn warning issued by Canadian scholar Winfred Cantwell Smith in mid-20th century that a healthy, functioning Islam is crucial for world peace. Clearly, the Islam today is not healthy and functioning. So it is not only the Muslims but the nation at large that should welcome an opportunity to debate and understand Islamic theological issues.

Tufail Ahmad, New Age Islam

Tufail Ahmad, New Age Islam

In present
times, nations are invaded by ideas emerging from internal and external
sources. There are two recent examples of this argument. One, Syrian refugees
arriving in Europe have practically invaded local cultures, disturbing the rule
of law in European countries. Two, in India television debates about pellets
guns have emerged as more powerful than bullets, thereby posing a threat to
peace in Kashmir. The tragedy of the Indian mind is that, in responding to the
war in Kashmir created by the Pakistani-jihadi mind – it is seeking a political
solution. In this context, discussed below are some difficult ways to resolve
the Kashmir issue but first look at a brief history of the conflict....

Ateeb Gul

Ateeb Gul

Far
from being just an exercise in historical pedantry, an accurate portrayal of
this historical period has real ramifications for the Islamic world today.
Actual recommendations are made by educationists and policymakers based on the
now-rejected myth of post-13th century decline. If we are to learn from
history, as the old adage goes, we need to first get it right....

Muhammad Yunus, New Age Islam

Muhammad Yunus, New Age Islam

While the list
of brutal rulings can be extended, they do not constitute ‘Islamic religious
ideology (Sharia), as they derive from the Sharia Law of Islam which is distinctly
different from the Sharia of Islam. There is a subtle but irrefutable
difference as explained below:

The Qur’an
represents the divine Sharia of Islam (5:48) which is preserved verbatim as
revealed over fourteen centuries ago, and is not influenced by the opinion of
scholars, politicians, intellectuals, philosophers or any human agency. It uses
the words Shira (technically Shir’ah) and Sharia (tech. Shar’iah) synonymously
with the generic notion of a system or principles of law (5:48, 45:18). It expounds
fundamental universal notions for just and harmonious governance of human
society. These include, among others, justice, liberty, equity, good deeds,
good neighbourly and inter-faith relations, sharing of wealth with the poor,
eradication of slavery, deliverance of women from various entrenched taboos,
empowerment of women use of intellect (Aql) and rational logic (Fiqha) ,
striving for excellence – to cite some major examples….